“It must be accepted that in some sports sometimes lives will be lost.” (New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Inc., The New Zealand Herald, 2012)
“A jumps race is a licence for animal cruelty.” (Eliot Pryor, campaign director for SAFE, Voxy, 9/27/13)
Two Thoroughbreds died yesterday as the New Zealand “2013 Jumping Programme” came to a close at Waikato. Seven-year-old Yangming and ten-year-old Roberty Bob fell in separate races, bringing the season’s death toll to ten. This figure, which outpaced last year, means that New Zealand can proudly boast a race-with-a-fatality rate of 10% (there were 99 events listed on the NZTR website). Imagine that. Here is the 2010-2013 victim roll. Broken shoulders, snapped legs, fractured spines, burst arteries.
The replays from yesterday (click on “video”)…
Race 1: Yangming, obviously tiring after having relinquished the lead, goes down at 2:26.
Race 6: Roberty Bob at 2:45, followed by two more at 5:02 and 5:46. When Mister Deejay crashes (5:02), the announcer says “it sold the farm,” apparently confusing his idioms. This race covered 3 miles, 22 hurdles (24 were scheduled, but the falls intervened), and took six minutes to run.
Yesterday’s Stewards Report (jud 29 Sep 2013) includes the following: “began awkwardly,” “fell heavily [Yangming],” “hit the second fence hard,” “landed awkwardly,” “misjudged the final fence,” “hit the fence…dipped on landing,” “stumbled badly,” “put in a poor jump…landing awkwardly and falling,” “underwent a post-race [exam] which showed signs of mild lameness,” “put in a poor jump…was humanely euthanzied [Roberty Bob],” “It’s A Monty lay on the track for a short period,” “Bold Mariner brought down by [It’s A Monty],” etc.. In all, I count 16 different horses as falling, hitting a fence, pulling up, or being “excessively whipped.” Madness.
We are true Barbarians.